Okay I have had lowferritin for years, but haven't done much, resisted iron due to side effects. Last nov/dec 07 I got some answers from reading about my hypothyroidism/Hashi's ( hx=15 yrs) and how it can cause lowferritin, etc. I learned that I don't convert T4 to T3 and switched from synthetic T4 to Armour. I also found out I have adrenal fatigue. I learned that having a thyroid problem means I may have some vitamin/mineral deficiencies. I started taking Adrenal Support, B's vitamins, magnesium, zinc, Wilsons Adrenal Stress Formula, Vit C, sea salt, floradix, sublingual ferrous sulfate (may stop- it is staining teeth), Iodoral, hydrocortisone, Vit D, fish oil. I feel SOOOO much better, except:

significant hairlossand continued poor tolerance to exercise. I had labs done a couple of months ago andferritin did not budge. I am thinking it is due to poor absorption. This is why we got a RX for sublingual iron-but now I think it is staining my teeth. I am thinking of adding Betaine to help with absorption. Sound right?

Any input? Oh and I take C with my floradix. I may switch to Proferrin ES although that made me bloat- could that mean poor absorption? Would taking Betaine help. I am desperate to get my levels up. I hope to get in next week to draw labs. How many days to I stop the iron to get accurate test? 3 days? Any other labs that would be helpful? I think I have a lot covered with the supplements. I use to only take levoxyl, now I take lots and feel so much better. This ferritin has me stumped though. I would love to STOP losing hair, it is scary.

Thank you Audrey and Flflowergirl. I was glad to see I am in good company. I was reading here and found many others like me.

I am going to get labs drawn and plan to ask for Vit D 25-OH they ran the wrong vit D last time. I am sure I need to take more iron. Just have trouble finding which one I can tolerate. I like the Floradix it is suppose to absorb well, just not sure how much I need of it. It is expensive. I just ordered Blood Builder, anyone hear of that? Suppose to be food based. The sublingual iron stained my teeth. Sometimes I think an IV would be easier. I will have ferritin tested again.

Thanks for the reminder of when to take stuff and which to avoid. It is hard when you work. I put some in my pocket. I take Armour sublingually so I pop those throughout the day. I take hydrocortisone for my adrenals. Started with isocort over the counter and needed to go with the RX of HC. I started iodine after doing the iodine load test and have had some trouble tolerating the 50 mg. My adrenals got stressed. So I pulse dose.

I have a NIS defect which means I have trouble with receptors getting the iodine in my cells. I also have MTHFR defect which has to do with being able to absorb folate.

I also have trouble converting T4 to T3 thus stopped the T4 only meds. I see a correlation of absorption/converting issues. Never thought of that before. I wonder how many others have this too? MTHFR is inherited. I was on heparin for my second child.

I read that low estrogen can cause hairloss. I will retest that. Any other ideas for labs: my list is free T3, T4, TSH, antibodies, ferritin, Vit D, cholesterol, sex hormones and DHEA.

How long before I should expect hairloss to improve? It has been 7 months of loss. This is not new to me but usually ends by now.

Audrey, your doctor sounds great, what kind of doctor, ND? I see a PA and my compounding pharmacist makes recommendations that he will follow. So far it is working for me...

Any good books to read on anemia, low iron? I buy books and read all I can to understand. I am in the medical field so it is pretty easy to absorb/digest.

Hi there, I just wanted to add that it took me 2 years to get my ferritin up to 65 from 19. I couldn't tolerate slo fe so I changed to the gluconate form. I finally went up to 100 in 2006 from 2002 (4 years of supplementing) then I fell to 45 in 2008. It really drives me nuts that if I don't constantly supplement, my ferritin takes a real plunge. Now I'm supplementing this time with feosol. My hairloss is constant, either the lowferritin, or some medication issue, it just won't stay in.... :-( cb

Wow, I guess building iron is hard! I may be like you. There has got to be an absorption issue don't you think. Not good to hear your hairloss persists. I will be bummed if I can't improve the hairloss.

[QUOTE=cathy57;3663764]Hi there, I just wanted to add that it took me 2 years to get my ferritin up to 65 from 19. I couldn't tolerate slo fe so I changed to the gluconate form. I finally went up to 100 in 2006 from 2002 (4 years of supplementing) then I fell to 45 in 2008. It really drives me nuts that if I don't constantly supplement, my ferritin takes a real plunge. Now I'm supplementing this time with feosol. My hairloss is constant, either the lowferritin, or some medication issue, it just won't stay in.... :-( cb[/QUOTE]

cathy57--Thank you so much for your post:angel:. I have always wondered about the progress of people that have already experienced anemia and/or lowferritin. It's great that you shared your experience to help others. It makes me feel a little better and encourages me that I too can get to 100 in the future. My GI doc told me that it is due to malabsorption (due to PPI's),and that I am married to iron, so I cannott stop taking supplements. I am at 41 Ferritin in 1 1/2 yrs., not all that great. Did you ever find out what your reason was for the lowferritin? FLFLOWERGIRL:)

Takes a bit of catching up when you haven't been on the net for only 2 days!!!! :)
Cant recall exactly who said what so i'll just lump everything together if that's ok.

First of all for all those Hashimoto's groupies out there, the inability to absorb things, particularly iron and vitamin D has VERY strong links to Hashimoto's. Most of us suffer with that. I saw my doc today and he also said the higher your vitamin D the better your T3 will become. It basically helps your T3 along.

Make sure you check for gluten intolerance as that will diminish the ability for nutrients to be absorbed too. On my gluten intolerance test i got and 18 and 15 was the max. My doc classed me as being a 'little' intolerant but even so advised me to ease off all things gluten or just eat very few gluten products. I found this cafe which does the yummiest gluten free orange/almond cake YUM :D

Hair........... well we all want our hair back and it seems to be the most stressful thing to lose. I'd trade less energy for some real hair growth. Even though my ferretin got to 61 after 2 long years of trying, i still had hairloss (didn't know i had Hashi's then). Suddenly my hair stopped falling out for 1 good month. I couldn't believe it. I thought this was it, the end of hair shedding. Then after the 1 good month my hair began shedding all over again. I couldn't work out the mystery. Why stop shedding for 1 month then start again. Some months late it hit me..... Iodine. It had to be the iodine my doctor had given me 3 months earlier. I had used it for a few months and never got a repeat bottle of iodine as my levels had come up nicely.

Well i didn't know at that time that i was Hashi's and didn't know that if i stop taking iron,iodine and vitamin D that my levels will drop either due to my thyroid or something else. My thyroid doctor has begun supplement me with iodine again as he did an iodine load test where you drink a certain amount of iodine and then collect your urine over a particular amount of time. They can then measure how much iodine you lose in a 24hr period. This test showed that for the time being i have to stay on my iodine drops till further notice. My hair is shedding closer to normal now, but i don't know whether it's due to the iodine or all the other things i've been doing in the last 3 months since having my thyroid treated. With hair you wont notice immediate results anyway. It usually takes 3 months or so to begin noticing a proper hair growth cycle after whatever has been fixed.

As for reflux treatment and inhibiting iron absorbtion. A guy i work with had a reflux issue and one of his doctors finally put him on some prescription enzymes and his reflux has gone.

I'm also on prescription digestive enzymes as my pancrease doesn't make sufficient enzymes to digest protein so it sits, ferments and inflames my thyroid. I've been on the enzymes since mid april and my stomach is better, no more bloating and i'm hoping that things are digesting better and i'm getting more nutrients.

My previous doctor who treated my anemia and my thyroid doctor have both said that quite often malabsorbtion of necessary vitamins/minerals and digestive issues are connected to thyroid patients and they nearly always see low iron in particular andlow vitamin D, digestive issues, metabolism issues eg: most often slow metabolism, hormonal issues, messed up monthly cycles, hair shedding, chronic tiredness and adrenal issues.

My doctor did say that the hair shedding can be due to a hormonal imbalance (i have too much estrogen and a little too much testosterone), but it can very possibly be related to my digestive system not digesting protein, it can also be due to insufficient T3 for my thyroid. I've been on a T3 med since april and he started me off on a slow dosage and i'm responding well to it. Right now he has added a tiny bit .05mg of a Thyroxine tablet to the mix and in 6 weeks i'll have a blood test to see whether i'm responding. He said some people respond best with only T3 med's and don't do well when a T4 med is added, while others do best on a combo of T3 and T4.

My doctor also has me drinking isolate whey protein every morning with breakfast to kickstart my metabolism and to add badly needed protein to my diet. Eventhough i was a big meat eater my body wasn't absorbing it due to the lack of enzymes i mentioned. You don't have to eat red meat every single day. 3 nights per week is good. Other nights you can have white meat or fish. You can get protein from pulses and nuts.
A nice lentil soup is good. Also almond, brazil nuts and cashews when eaten together are a complete protein, just like meat. Iron from meat is likely the easiest for out bodies to absorb and we dont just get iron from meat, but a lot of other essential things.

A lot of people also lack selenium in their diests. Too much selenium or too little can cause hairloss, but apparently 4 brazil nuts per day is all the selenium you need. The ones from brazil are actually supposed to be the best.

With all things, whether it's vitamin D, iodine, selenium etc etc don't just start taking it of your own accord as overdosing on it can be as bad as not having enough. Get a blood test first and take it from there.

There is always a reason for low ferretin. It is NOT normal for ferretin to take months or years to fix. Once you begin supplementing with iron and you do not see it rise considerably in the first month or 2 and it's taking forever to go up, then you have a BIG problem. Low iron that takes forever is always a symptom of something else. You need to find that something else.

I found endo's to be worthless. I spent 15 years with Hashi's and did not get what I needed from the endo's. In that time I would go from hyper to hypo and need dose adjustments of levoxyl or synthroid about every 6 months, followed by an increase hairloss each dose adjustment. I found a great website that talked about patient's not converting T4-T3 and figured it out myself. Found a family practice that will prescribe armour and don't plan to return to any endo's. They did not help me get well. I figured it out myself. So sad!

I figured out the conversion problem once I got off the levoxyl (T4 only)and started feeling better with Armour (which has all the hormones your thryoid produces-). No more hyper feeling. You want to suppress your TSH especially with Hashimotos- this will stop the hyper/hypo changes. Mine is very low (below normal) which does not mean I am hyper like the endo's want to say. There are some great books to read that will help you. I can't remember if we can post them here. I know I am not allowed to post a website.

I don't think you will get what you need from the endo. They just don't treat the thyroid properly. They dose by TSH which is NOT reliable especially when you have Hashi's. Suppress TSH and get frees in upper third and you will feel better! Be sure to be on natural dissecated thyroid replacement. Check adrenals by saliva test. Selenium is helpful with Hashi's.

My last big symptom is hairloss. All the others have disappeared. I am going to eat red meat, take my floradix, trying blood builder with it. I read that combing the different types of iron can help.

My advice is to find a doctor who will treat symptoms vs labs. There are sites to search for a good doctor.

Yes, the low acid is the issue with not absorbing iron. I think that could by why it takes so long to build stores up. I can't imagine how much harder it is when you take acid reducing meds. Not a great situation I am sure. You can see how you can easily become deficient in minerals and vitamins. I hope you can wean from Nexium in time.

I get my ferritin results this week. I hope I see a raise. It is frustrating...The good news is my hypo symptoms are almost gone, just hairloss left, ugh!

I don't think you will get too far with your Endo. I have been to 3 and am done. Did not help me at all!

I second that......... Thanks for starting this thread jlt18 :) I think the anemia section needs a thread like this for those suffering from both thyroid andlow iron levels.

My doctor didn't actually explain that hypo can lead to lowered acid levels, which leads to malabsorbtion and lowered body temperature etc etc. My Trichologist and my thyroid doctor only stated that they have seen a lot of ladies with a thyroid condition which accompanied difficult to raise ferretin, as well as digestive issues which particularly concerned digestion of protein. Getting the right amount of protein is important for the thyroid, iron, hair/skin/nails, and the liver, which are the areas i'm familiar with and having problems with.

A lady in a healthfood store guessed that my blood group was type A. She said type A's tend to have less stomach acid for digestive purposes and you need those if you are a meat eater in particular. My current doctor guessed prior to any testing that the majority of my hairloss was due to a form of malnutrition due to the lack of certain vitamins/minerals due to the malabsorbtion issues. He said a lot of people have this and don't know it.

I do know that my hair shedding wouldn't have been solely related to one thing, but taking into consideration the protein issue (as well as my low iron andlow iodine) it's likely no wonder i was losing so much hair. It's slowed in the last couple of months, but it has done that in the past during the coldest part of winter and then resumed shedding once the weather hotted up. Very unusual that it stops during winter. Will see what happens once we get into spring. I have had a lot of new growth and my mother says my hair looks like someone took a pair of siccors to it and took a few strands here and there and chopped them off into various lengths. I don't need a hairdresser to layer my hair. It kinda managed to do that all on it's own :D Makes me look a bit wild an woolley at times :D

Not sure if i mentioned it on here or the thyroid board, but a guy i work with had reflux issues and his doctor put him on some prescription enzymes and he said it fixed his reflux issues.

I found learning about anemia much easier than learning about the thyroid as the thyroid encompasses so many other areas and it gets very technical. On the thyroid board i tend to feel like a fish out of water. No matter how much i read i tend to find it hard going. Are any of you on adrenal med's for low or high cortisol levels? I've got low cortisol so am taking medication to help my adrenal fatigue as this also tends to go hand in hand with Hypo. Last night i decided to look up a little more information on the adrenals and refresh my mind on what can go wrong if your Endo has simply stuck you on thyroid meds and not checked out your adrenals and it is SCARY!!!!

Marilla - i'm not sure about Hashi's being in/curable. I think it depends on your doctor, how much he/she knows or is willing to do for you, what situation your thyroid is in at the moment and a heap of other things. I'll be seeing my doctor in about 4 or so weeks time for a new blood test. I'll ask him about some Hashi's success stories.

FLFLOWERGIRL - fingers crossed you get a positive outcome with your test results. I know how VERY important it is and how it's such a BIG thing. I don't think anybody but a fellow sufferer can know just how big a deal it is to have these repeat tests done and how much we pray for an improvement on past results. Be brave and wear that little bandaid with pride once it's over :D

Hey AudryB, funny I have the same kind of hairloss.... picks up in the summer and slows down in colder weather.... I know I'm low in certain minerals, including zinc and silica, wonder if it's any of those. Have you figured out what's doing this? My hair just won't thicken up because there's just so much hairloss.... however, I never seem to go bald... I lose it from everywhere... diffuse, never just the top, mostly from all over.... strange that it grows in just enough to keep me from going bald....c

cathy57 - i'm like you, my hair shedding was uniform and from all over my scalp and i never went "bald" or "alopecia-like". My Trichologist did say that anemia or other illnesses which cause hairloss can bring on early alopcea if it is genetic. Thankfully i didn't have that to worry over as well. It's bad enough losing so much of it, but if i ended up with the alopecia that would have just added to my woes.

The other thing which seems to run in the thyroid family is gluten intolerance. My doctor has advised me to eat as little as possible of any gluten products.

Getting sufficient sleep is also important.

My BIG thing at the moment is staying away from anything to do with soy.

[QUOTE=webdiva;3688028]Anyone have sudden rapid pattern hairloss due to hyper-, hypo-, Hashi's, or poor conversion? Cortisol is high and testosterone is slightly high.

Thanks for any help.[/QUOTE]

I have Hashi's and have always had hairloss to some degree (a little noticeable shedding) nothing too awful.

When I was anemic on the other hand, it was terrible:(. I had hair all over my clothing, floors and it would get into my food, that was the worst besides the scare this caused me. Iron loss has been my main reason for a large amount of loss over a period of time. As far as the continued small amount of hairloss it must be thyroid related, I really don't know for sure. My hair sheds evenly. FLFLOWERGIRL:)

I too have hairloss due to Hashi's. It seemed to increase with dose changes, I would go from hyper to hypo on T4 drugs. Recently I learned that lowferritin can cause hairloss. I recall having lowferritin for some time now. I am slowly building it up. I went from 16 to 26 in a few months. I hope to see some more changes. The hairloss has been bad and may be slowing a bit the last couple of weeks. It sheds any time any where. I too have found it in food. I have to vacuum my hair up regularly, like a dog. I am feeling a bit more positive that the iron supplements are making a change in the ferritin levels and will slow the hairloss. I think it is both Hashi's andlowferritin.

Hey ladies, when you get your blood tests done? A.M? P.M.? when is the ideal time? My doc says 4.5 hours after you take your meds. I just came back from my holistic doc and my FT3 was way too high, I freaked out. Max is supposed to be 5.7 pmol/L and I'm 7.5!! ugh! I've been playing around with dosage for 5 years and I'm still too high, no wonder my hair is falling.... I've got to cut the dosage now to 30mg a.m. /30 mg p.m. I was on 45mg..... I just wish this would sort itself out!! I was surprised to find that my ferritin jumped to 71 from 45 in just afew short months, wow, I was really happy, the bad news even at 71 my hair is still falling, means my ferritin is not the cause of my hairloss. I just hope I sort this out before I go bald....(my zinc is very low)
Audrey, you have an interesting story,,,,, I don't hear about your problem very often, do you know what "caused " it?

On a thyroid board it is recommended to not take Armour 12 -18 hours before labs. I believe it can make your free T3 look too high. I take my last dose of armour (I dose throughout the day) at noon the day before my labs and then take my morning dose right after blood draw.

I wonder if that is what is happening. How do you feel? What is your temperature?

prokureur - The reason my doctor is doing everything for me is that he works in a University and he deals with small groups of "problem patients". By 'problem', i mean people who are doing all the right things, yet are having problems raising their ferretin and have a diagnosed thyroid condition. It also helps that this doctor is a Hashi's sufferer himself and relates to all we are going through. I'd say it's more like my guardian angels were looking after me as i did a heap of research on here, then as a last resort found a Trichologist for my hairloss (i had given up on all other doctors) and he diagnosed my Hashi's, helped lift my ferretin and he is the one who knows my current doctor and referred me on. It was more like an unplanned chain of events.

I agree with FLFLOWERGIRL, gluten intolerance andlow B12 are often causes of low iron as well as all the other things eg: internal bleeding, heavy periods, vegetarian diet etc. My current doctor wants my ferretin over 100 and even up to 125. A higher ferretin is very beneficial for the thyroid too. I guess if you have had one of those biopsies (or whatever they do) to diagnose gluten intolerance or Celiacs and it's come back that you dont have that then that rules that out. It's probably good to get the biopsy done as blood tests can give false positives and false negatives. You should get your B12 checked too.

In my case, i'm not sure how much of my slow rising ferretin is due to gluten and how much to not being able to digest protein. I've been reading up on malabsorption issues and it's amazing how the inability to digest certain things can cause quite a lot of different side effects ef: edema (swelling anywhere in the body), dry skin, hairloss, anemia, easy bruising, dehydration, fatigue, vision problems. Taking those symptoms into account, who knows just how many things could be/were affecting my hair shedding.

At the end of the day, no matter what your doctor is or isn't doing, you need to do as much research, learn as much as you can and make lists, find out who can do more tests and then start ruling things out. I guess it doesn't help when doctors say your tests came back 'normal' just because the test results are 'within range'. That's why boards like this are great as there are a number of people around who really know their stuff and can help with test results.